Twitter says coming redesign will be more news-friendly

A graphic for Twitter is seen at the New York Stock Exchange. The social media giant announced Wednesday new changes users will see in the coming months. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

June 13 (UPI) -- Social media company Twitter said Wednesday it will redesign and update its user interface to make news easier to find.

The new design will be rolled out to Apple iOS and Android customers within the next few months, Twitter said. It features a more intuitive design to find accounts, hashtags or news items.

Twitter will organize its "Explore" feature by topic instead of content type, and its "Happening Now" section will be expanded to include tweets about breaking news and topics chosen by users.

The platform's "Moments" section will also now involve swooping upward, instead of horizontally -- a change requested by users.

Live video of news stories will be available at the top of the screen, with a brief summary, and tweets will be available below in several categories.

"We've been working to change how you discover all the information around news, events, and stories, and today, we're sharing a few steps forward," Twitter said in a statement. It'll be easier to find and follow the big events and stories you care about in your timeline."

Twitter says ease of use is a big reason for the user growth it saw in the first quarter of this year. In April, the company announced 336 million active users, or an annual growth rate of 6 percent per year.